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Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
Judy Blume is often best known for her children’s and young adult novels. Such classic books as, “Superfudge”, “Are you there God, It’s me, Margaret?”, and, “Forever” continue to hold a place in youngsters’ and teenaged imaginations. Many readers, who discovered Judy’s wonderful voice in their preteen years, have moved up to enjoy her adult novels today.
The third of Ms. Blume’s ventures into adult fiction, “Summer Sisters” is a stirring story of the relationship, best friendship and underlying rivalry between two women, spanning twenty years time. The two characters come from completely different worlds, but share the summer every year at Martha’s Vineyard. The house, family, and outlying adventures seem believable through Ms. Blume’s capable story telling. Each turn of events leave the reader with a sense of the characters’ emotion and vantage point.
As we meet the twelve year old girls, Caitlin and Victoria, they are about to start their first summer together in 1977. Caitlin’s family owns a house on Martha’s Vineyard and she’s invited Vix (as Caitlin dubs her) to spend the summer and keep her company. The two characters couldn’t be more different, and at the start you can see a hero worship towards Caitlin from Vix. Caitlin’s family is rich and eccentric. To Vix’s twelve year old sensibilities, Caitlin is exciting and glamorous ad her family is amazing. Vix’s own family was far from wealthy, and they understand her plight and growing pains about as well as any adolescent feels understood, perhaps less so.
The friends spend every summer together at the Vineyard, summers full of adventure, growth and sharing. Together they cross the threshold from young girl to womanhood, changing bodies and grown sensibilities. Years go by and that new, shiny appeal of hero-worship wears thin, and Vix no longer puts Caitlin on a pedestal, seeing her for what she really is; a frail girl in search only of real, unending love and support. Through Caitlin’s odd family, Vix is able to take advantage of privilege and opportunities she would never have managed before; such as private school and a good education. Through Vix, Caitlin finds the one thing that has always been missing in her own life; unconditional love.
They share first loves, and heartache, and betrayal. The reader is led on a wild and sprawling path, where best friendship becomes sisterhood, and betrayal, even the gravest of sins becomes forgivable over time. Through the author’s evocative voice, we follow these two characters through growing pains and changes which culminate in adult understanding. There is a love story at the center of this book, rich and appealing, but it is not merely the story of two lovers. More so it is the story of two friends, different and unique yet similar in passion and need for common understanding.
Set against the beautiful world of Martha’s Vineyard, with a cast of characters to breathe life into these women’s surroundings, the reader finds themselves seeing the ocean and tasting the salt air. Highly enjoyable women’s fiction, this tale will take you on an emotional journey, where the characters are as real as your day to day friends and their lessons are similar to your own. Dramatically recreated to bring the journey full circle, our life lessons, hopefully, aren’t as heartrending. Still, enough of the elements which are universal to us all, will have the reader sharing in Vix’s heartbreak and understanding, and believing in Caitlin’s own self-conscious rivalry.
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